Facebook is killing human interaction

A quick glance on Facebook before I begin this assignment.  A debilitating but inescapable thought that pops into my mind every single day.  Three hours later and I’m still scrolling through the never-ending plethora of pictures and posts.

I may be aware of who Naomi – my year 11 classmate – is dating and what Michael Kors themed gift she received for Valentine’s day, but I haven’t really made much progress.  For as long as I can remember this has been a daily routine.  The site is my first port of call when I get anywhere near technology, and you don’t even want to know how many ‘friends’ I’ve got.

But today, marks the beginning of the end.

The beast beating back my adoration and near-dependence on Facebook is the recently introduced ‘Reactions’.  Whereas before a simple click would express a like for what someone has posted.  This has now been replaced by the choice of five emotions – Love, Angry, Sad, Haha and Wow.

The demise of human expression and relations is upon us, signalled by Zuckerberg and his cronies’ attempts to remove the hardship of expressing yourself through words.

Alex’s dog has died – Sad face. Dave has had a new baby – Heart. Sarah has just got a job – Wow

Is it not fantastic whatever situation we have shoved in our faces on the bright little screen in front of our numb, blurry eyes we can answer with just five emotions?  Shouldn’t we be thankful that the efforts of articulation are now a thing of the past?

I say no.

Above, I used the example of Sarah celebrating her new job.  Zuckerberg wants me to click ‘Wow’, Sarah to get a brief, meaningless buzz from receiving a ‘Wow’ face and that be the end of it.  Now you’ll have to indulge me in what is a rather tenuous example, what about if I’m jealous, Sarah is lazy and I do not want her to get a great job.

Perhaps my emotions stretch between the ‘Angry’ emotion and the ‘Wow’ one, what to do now?  I can’t click both.  I’ll just have to suppress my own idiosyncrasies, press happy face and gulp down Facebook’s brand of subduing, advertisement-ridden medicine.

In essence, I hope a widespread boycott of Facebook develops and all its efforts to diminish real, human reaction are thwarted.  But let’s be realistic, you are probably reading this only because you stumbled on it upon the very platform I am complaining against.  And after writing this, secretly, I’m hoping to receive a great deal of ‘Wow’ and ‘Love’ emotions, each one giving me a small piece of excitement and gratification.

Ultimately, the hands stretching out from the Facebook icon on our phones are tightening their grasp, it seems they cannot be stopped. Angry and Sad Face.